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Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, Article 37.º

“Public Ministry doesn’t recognise mistake in order to save its skin”

Accused former inspector believes in aggressions against Leonor Cipriano, but not by these arguidos

Former Polícia Judiciária inspector Paulo Pereira Cristóvão considered, this Wednesday, that the Public Ministry didn’t recognise its “mistake” in accusing him of torture against Leonor Cipriano in order to “save its skin”, says Lusa.

“I see the Public Ministry trying to save itself from a complicated situation that it got into and I think that today our innocence was exhaustively clarified, as well as the mistake in which the Public Ministry has laboured for a long time. We thought that it would be brave enough to recognise that it was deceived, but apparently it kept its stance, trying to save its skin”, he said upon leaving the court of Faro.

After all parties presented their closing arguments, Cristóvão also said that he wasn’t shocked when the assistant from the Lawyers’ Order, Rodrigo Santiago, called the arguidos criminals and demanded their condemnation. “If I was a drug dealer and paid him 100.000 euros to defend me, he would say the same about the other party. I don’t take that into account”, he replied.

The former inspector considered that “there were things today, during closing arguments, that were demonstrated”, namely that “Mrs Leonor Cipriano was aggressed, but they’ll have to think that these PJ members had been in the Algarve for two days and are now being accused of aggressions that the State’s expert herself says could have happened 21 days earlier”. “According to this, I don’t know how justice can be done by sustaining any type of accusation”, he added.

Pereira Cristóvão further admitted that “there were bits that were hard to endure, namely hearing certain lies that were told here by members of the Prison Services’ Directory and then they came over to apologise, on the stairs [outside], for what they had just said”.

“That didn’t exactly happen because they told the truth. The only person who was humble and decent and came here to say the truth, is being persecuted right now with a disciplinary process”, Cristóvão regretted, referring to prison guard António Maia, who said it didn’t seem to him that Leonor Cipriano was aggressed.